&lt;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/07/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-smart-city-abandoned">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/07/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-smart-city-abandoned</a>&gt;<br><br>Google’s affiliate Sidewalk Labs has abruptly abandoned its vision to transform Toronto’s waterfront into one of the world’s first “smart cities”.<br><br>In a statement released on Thursday, Sidewalk Labs’ CEO, Dan Doctoroff, said that sustained unpredictabilities stemming from the coronavirus pandemic meant that the project was no longer feasible.<br><br>“As unprecedented economic uncertainty has set in around the world and in the Toronto real estate market, it has become too difficult to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing core parts of the plan we had developed,” he wrote.<br><br>The sudden end to the Quayside project marks a stunning downfall to the vision championed by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and Eric Schmidt of Google, of a community built “from the internet up”.<br><br>Doctoroff nonetheless praised Toronto as “one of the world’s great centres of technological innovation” and said the decision came with “great personal sadness and disappointment”. In a sign of its commitment to the project, Sidewalk Labs had established an office in the city, as well as a team staffed by urban planners and public relations experts, he said.<br>[...]